Greetings from the frozen north

This is a discussion on Greetings from the frozen north within the Introduce Yourself forums, part of the Welcome to Tropical Fish Keeping category; -->
I, like many others in the meet and greet section, had a few fish in the bowl when I was a kid. I always ...

I, like many others in the meet and greet section, had a few fish in the bowl when I was a kid. I always liked them but I was not diligent enough, didn't look after them, they passed on, and dad wouldn't buy me more as a life lesson. Now that I am in my mid 40's I am older and wiser (wife isn't so sure about more mature though) and I have been thinking about getting an aquarium for a few years.

So I announced before xmas I was interested in putting together an aquarium and the wife looked at me like I was from mars. I mentioned I could get a bearded dragon instead. She said fish are fine. So now that I sorta kinda have permission I dove into research. I am a tad anal about doing things the right way and this time it seems that is in my favour. I didn't know the difference between a nitrogen cycle and a unicycle. Now I know just about enough to be dangerous, just hopefully not to the fish.

After reading a lot on the net, and especially in this forum, I am planning on getting a 55-75G ish size tank and build it planted. I am looking into "themes" from a region of the world but am undecided and am open to suggestions. A couple of Byron's tanks from the Amazon look very interesting. One issue we have is VERY hard water in Alberta so at this point am unsure how that will affect the fish/plants from the Amazon. More research is obviously required.

I am glad to be here. It looks like a lot of people that enjoy their hobby and are happy to help. And boy do I need the help :)

Welcome to the Forum, I too am new to the forum but not to fish keeping. I use to own a 55G freshwater tank. I never tried the planted though. I miss my 55g. I would love to see pics of yours when you get it up and running. Let us know how it goes.